Stopping For The Night: 5 Habits To Break Before Bedtime

June 23, 2015

You lay down on your senso memory mattress bed and stared at your white ceiling. It was a Sunday night, so you have to wake up early. You close your eyes, but that’s it. You couldn’t fall asleep. You restlessly shift on your bed, trying different positions in hopes that you’d gain access to dreamland soon. After what seemed like a lifetime, your alarm beeped. It’s time for you to go to work – and you are going there tired and sleepy.

It’s a bad experience, right? To avoid this from happening, make sure to change these habits before bedtime:

Drinking Coffee After Lunch

It is common knowledge that taking caffeine keeps you awake – this is why it’s also common knowledge that one should not drink coffee (or any drinks that contain caffeine like tea or soda) right after lunch. Various studies and researches said that caffeine can remain in our body for up to 12 hours. So if you want a restful night, stay away from coffee as early as lunch.

If you really can’t help but drink coffee after lunch, just switch to decaf. You should also try chamomile tea or warm milk in the evening since it helps us go to sleep quickly.

Working Out Before Sleeping

It is true that exercising regularly helps our bodies to sleep better. However, don’t do any strenuous activities 3 to 4 hours before bedtime. Doing so messes with our sleep process. So if you want to work out, make sure to do it in the morning, afternoon, or early evening.

Bringing Your Work to Bed

Stress from work, including going over spreadsheets and other work-related tasks, makes it hard for us to fall asleep. This worsens if you are working on your laptop because you can bring it on your bed, and glowing screens are known to inhibit sleep.

In addition, do not work in your bedroom because sooner or later, you will associate it with working and stress instead of relaxation and sleep (following Learning Psychology’s logic).

Eating A Lot

While there are certain kinds of food that can make you drowsy, make sure not to take a large amount of dinner. Why so? Eating big dinners take hours to digest – making it hard to fall asleep.

You should make your lunch your main meal, and limit your dinner to fewer than 500 calories. Also, remember to skip spicy foods and MSG in your dinner meal for less heartburn, indigestion, and too-vivid dreams.